Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/102

82 to furnish to the said hospital lands near the city of Mexico, producing three hundred thousand fanegas of wheat, as is set forth in the said endowment to which I refer, I direct that this obligation be fulfilled, and I assign for such purpose a piece of land, which I own, at the extremity of Coyoacan, situated between that town, and the river which crosses the road leading to Chapultepec. Should this not suffice, the amount shall be completed, at the option of my successor, from other lands where I have had, and have, my plantations, situated beyond the said river in the direction of Chapultepec. Should my successor or successors at any time wish to substitute for the said hospital, as required by the endowment, other lands producing three hundred thousand fanegas of wheat, this may be done, on condition that they are as good as those I have designated. As I do not know whether some part of the lands, indicated and named by me for the said hospital, may not belong to me as Señor (proprietary lord) of that place, or by other title, I direct that any such be restored to their owners, who shall be paid the full value to their satisfaction. As I have worked such lands, profiting by them, under the belief that I might do so with a clear conscience, I direct that the rightful owners of the said lands be repaid the amount it may be shown I hae derived from them, so that my conscience may be clean; my said successor shall be obliged, should these lands be shown not to belong to me, to make good the amount provided in the act of endowment to the said hospital.

XVI. Item: I declare and say that, as has been stated, the construction of the said hospital in Mexico shall be completed in the said city as above mentioned out of the rents of the lands and buildings I own in the square and streets of Tacuba and San Francisco; and this construction completed, the income from the said shops and buildings shall revert to my successor or successors. They shall henceforth devote this entire sum annually to the construction of the monastery of nuns, and of the above mentioned college which I directed to be founded and built in my said town of Coyoacan, using and distributing the sums necessary to put them in possession.

XVII. And, that the works of the said hospital,